The US Congress Is Investigating Government Use Of Kaspersky Software (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes Reuters: A U.S. congressional panel this week asked 22 government agencies to share documents on Moscow-based cyber firm Kaspersky Lab, saying its products could be used to carry out "nefarious activities against the United States," according to letters seen by Reuters. The requests made on Thursday by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology are the latest blow to the antivirus company, which has been countering accusations by U.S. officials that it may be vulnerable to Russian government influence... The committee "is concerned that Kaspersky Lab is susceptible to manipulation by the Russian government, and that its products could be used as a tool for espionage, sabotage, or other nefarious activities against the United States," wrote the panel's Republican chairman, Lamar Smith, in the letters... A committee aide told Reuters the survey was a "first step" designed to canvas the U.S. government and that more action may follow depending on the results.
Agencies contacted include both the Deparatment of Homeland Security and NASA. The committee wants to see internal risk assessments, plus a list of all systems using Kaspersky products and the names of government contractors using the software.

Comments

I'm Exceptionally Wary

[CAOgdin]

Given the Russian Government's utter reliance on subversive means, and their absolute control over the activities of every business, I cannot have confidence that Kaspersky has been granted any exception from those totalitarian rules. I would NEVER trust a product from a Russian business, and even abandoned Acronis (backup} for the same reasons some years ago. There IS no integrity in the service of customers in other nations that is safe from corruption in service to malevolant forces at play in the USSR government.